To celebrate Bastille Day this year we have a beautiful poster which was printed
at the time of the issuing of the Declaration to spread its message throughout
the country. It was designed to be hung in public places so that ordinary people
could see what the Assembly was doing in their name. George Jellinek in his
study of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens (1895,
English trans. by Max Farand 1901) argues that the French were strongly influenced
by the precedents of the American states' constitutions and bill of rights
which were developed during the American Revolution. Here is an example:

VIRGINIA, I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and
have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society,
they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the
enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

ART. I. Les homes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. Les distinctions
sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l’utilité commune. [Men are born
and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only
on the common utility.]

Source of the Image

Some Observations about Le Barbier's Illustration

A stone plynth is engraved with "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen, decreed by the National Assembly during the sesssions of August
20, 21, 23, 24, and 26 1789. Accepted by the King. To the Representatives of
the French People" Seated at the top left of the plynth is the figure of Marianne
wearing a phrygian cap and holding the broken chains of tyranny in her hands.
On the top right of the plynth is an angel who is pointing with her left hand
to the articles of the Declaration and with her right hand which is holding
a sceptre to the masonic eye at the top of the poster, whose beams of enlightenment
are flooding the plynth.

An English Translation of the Declaration

The representatives of the French people, constituted into a National Assembly,
considering that ignorance, forgetting or contempt of the rights of man are
the sole causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments,
are resolved to expose [i.e., expound], in a solemn declaration, the natural,
inalienable and sacred rights of man, so that that declaration, constantly
present to all members of the social body, points out to them without cease
their rights and their duties; so that the acts of the legislative power and
those of the executive power, being at every instant able to be compared with
the goal of any political institution, are very respectful of it; so that the
complaints of the citizens, founded from now on simple and incontestible principles,
turn always to the maintenance of the Constitution and to the happiness of
all.

In consequence, the National Assembly recognizes and declares, in the presence
and under the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of man and
of the citizen:

Article I - Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions
can be founded only on the common utility.

Article II - The goal of any political association is the conservation of
the natural and imprescriptible [i.e., inviolable] rights of man. These rights
are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.

Article III - The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the
Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly
from it.

Article IV - Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others:
thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders
which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights.
These borders can be determined only by the law.

Article V - The law has the right to ward [i.e., forbid] only actions [which
are] harmful to the society. Any thing which is not warded [i.e., forbidden]
by the law cannot be impeded, and no one can be constrained to do what it [i.e.,
the law] does not order.

Article VI - The law is the expression of the general will. All the citizens
have the right of contributing personally or through their representatives
to its formation. It must be the same for all, either that it protects, or
that it punishes. All the citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible
to all public dignities, places and employments, according to their capacity
and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents.

Article VII - No man can be accused, arrested nor detained but in the cases
determined by the law, and according to the forms which it has prescribed.
Those who solicit, dispatch, carry out or cause to be carried out arbitrary
orders, must be punished; but any citizen called [i.e., summoned] or seized
under the terms of the law must obey at the moment; he renders himself culpable
by resistance.

Article VIII - The law should establish only strictly and evidently necessary
penalties, and no one can be punished but under a law established and promulgated
before the offense and [which is] legally applied.

Article IX - Any man being presumed innocent until he is declared culpable,
if it is judged indispensible to arrest him, any rigor [i.e., action] which
would not be necessary for the securing of his person must be severely reprimanded
by the law.

Article X - No one may be questioned about his opinions, [and the] same [for]
religious [opinions], provided that their manifestation does not trouble the
public order established by the law.

Article XI - The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of
the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, print freely,
save [if it is necessary] to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases
determined by the law.

Article XII - The guarantee of the rights of man and of the citizen necessitates
a public force [i.e., a police force]: this force is thus instituted for the
advantage of all and not for the particular utility of those to whom it is
confided.

Article XIII - For the maintenance of the public force and for the expenditures
of administration, a common contribution is indispensable; it must be equally
distributed between all the citizens, by reason of their faculties [i.e., ability
to pay].

Article XIV - Each citizen has the right of noting, by himself or through
his representatives, the necessity of the public contribution, of free consent,
of following the employment [of the contributions], and of determining the
quotient [i.e., the share], the assessment, the recovering [i.e., the collecting]
and the duration.

Article XV - The society has the right of requesting [an] account[ing] from
any public agent of its [i.e., the society's] administration.

Article XVI - Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not assured,
nor the separation of powers determined, has not a bit of Constitution.

Article XVII - Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be
deprived of private usage, if it is not when the public necessity, legally
noted, evidently requires it, and under the condition of a just and prior indemnity
[i.e., compensation].

Georg Jellinek's Comparison of the American states and French Declarations
of Rights

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Georg Jellinek compares, section by section, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen with similar sections from American state Bills of Rights, in order to show how the latter influenced the former.

VIRGINIA, I. That all men are by nature equally free and
independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter
into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest
their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means
of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness
and safety.

VIRGINIA, IV. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or
separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration
of public services.

MASSACHUSETTS, Preamble to the Constitution. The end of the institution,
maintenance, and administration of government is to secure the existence
of the bodypolitic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose
it with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquillity, their natural
rights and the blessings of life.

MARYLAND, IV. The doctrine of nonresistance, against arbitrary power and
oppression, is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness
of mankind.

MASSACHUSETTS, Preamble. The bodypolitic is
formed by a voluntary association of individuals; it is a social compact
by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen
with the whole people that all shall be governed by certain laws for the
common good.

MASSACHUSETTS, X. Each individual of the society has a right to be protected
by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to
standing laws.

MASSACHUSETTS, XI. Every subject of the commonwealth
ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all
injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character.

NORTH CAROLINA XIII. That every freeman, restrained of his liberty, is
entitled to a remedy, to inquire into the lawfulness thereof, and to remove
the same, if unlawful; and that such remedy ought not to be denied or delayed.

VIRGINIA, VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of
laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people,
is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.1

MARYLAND, V. That the right in the people to
participate in the Legislature, is the best security of liberty, and the
foundation of all free government.

MASSACHUSETTS, IX. All elections ought to be free;2 and all the inhabitants
of this commonwealth, having such qualifications as they shall establish
by their frame of government, have an equal right to elect officers, and
to be elected, for public employments.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, XII. Nor are the inhabitants of this State controllable
by any other laws than those to which they or their representative body
have given their consent.

MASSACHUSETTS, XII. No subject shall be held
to answer for any crimes or no offence until the same is fully and plainly,
substantially and formally, described to him; or be compelled to accuse,
or furnish evidence against himself; and every subject shall have a right
to produce all proofs that may be favorable to him; to meet the witnesses
against him face to face, and to be fully heard in his defence by himself,
or his counsel at his election. And no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned,
despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or privileges, put
out of the protection of the law, exiled or deprived of his life, liberty,
or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.3

VIRGINIA, X. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may
be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed,
or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly
described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought
not to be granted.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, XVIII. All penalties ought to
be proportioned to the nature of the offence.4

MARYLAND, XIV. That sanguinary laws ought to be avoided, as far as is
consistent with the safety of the State; and no law, to inflict cruel and
unusual pains and penalties, ought to be made in any case, or at any time
hereafter.5

MARYLAND, XV. That retrospective laws, punishing facts committed before
the existence of such laws, and by them only declared criminal, are oppressive,
unjust, and incompatible with liberty; wherefore no ex post facto law
ought to be made.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, V. Every individual has a natural
and unalienable right to worship GOD according to the dictates of his own
conscience, and reason; and no subject shall be hurt, molested or restrained
in his person, liberty or estate for worshipping GOD, in the manner and
season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his
religious profession, sentiments or persuasion; provided he doth not disturb
the public peace, or disturb others, in their religious worship.

PENNSYLVANIA, V. That government is, or ought
to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the
people, nation or community; and not for the particular emolument or advantage
of any single man, family, or sett of men, who are a part only of that
community.

MASSACHUSETTS, X. Each individual of the society
has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty,
and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently,
to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; to give his
personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary.

MASSACHUSETTS, XXIII. No subsidy, charge, tax,
impost, or duties, ought to be established, fixed, laid or levied, under
any pretext whatsoever, without the consent of the people, or their representatives
in the legislature.

15. La société a le droit de demander compte à tout agent
public de son administration.

See above, VIRGINIA, II; further

MASSACHUSETTS
V. All power residing originally in the people, and being derived from
them, the several magistrates and officers of government vested with
authority, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are the substitutes
and agents, and are at all times accountable to them.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, III. When men enter into a state
of society, they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society,
in order to insure the protection of others; and without such an equivalent,
the surrender is void.

MASSACHUSETTS, XXX. In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative
department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either
of them; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial
powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative
and executive powers, or either of them; to the end it may be a government
of laws, and not of men.

MASSACHUSETTS, X. . . . But no part of the property
of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public
uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the
people. . .. And whenever the public exigencies require that the property
of any individual should be appropriated to public uses, he shall receive
a reasonable compensation therefor.

VERMONT, II. That private property ought to be subservient to public uses,
when necessity requires it; nevertheless, whenever any particular man's
property is taken for the use of the public, the owner ought to receive
an equivalent in money.